Over the past thirty years, telephony has significantly evolved from the once-ubiquitous public switched telephone service (PSTN). Telecommunications consumers today have a wide range of telecommunications options to choose from, including traditional landline phone service, IP-based telecommunications services (based on, for example, Voice over Internet Protocol), cellular telecommunications services, and converged telecommunications services (such as Unlicensed Mobile Access or UMA).
Telecommunications devices now consist in a myriad of form factors, such as traditional landline phones, cordless phones, cellular phones, smart phones, personal digital assistant (PDA) phones, desktop and portable computers, media players, home telecommunications hubs, or the like (hereinafter “telecommunications devices”), which have become a ubiquitous part of modern life. Originally, most of these telecommunications devices just provided two-way voice communication between a first person at a first location using a first telecommunication device and a second person at a second location using a second telecommunication device, so that the first person and the second person were able to carry on a conversation. For example, a voice communication or call normally involved real-time, duplex, synchronous voice communications, in which all participants hear the other participants in real time, all participants can simultaneously speak, and all participants are actively engaged and respond directly and immediately to each other without significant interruption.
More recently, telecommunication devices are frequently capable of both voice and data communications, using various modes of such communications, text messages (e.g., Short Message Service or SMS), and multimedia messages (e.g., Multimedia Messaging Service or MMS) are well-known forms of asynchronous data communications. E-mail was originally used with computers, but is now commonly sent and received through telecommunications devices as well. SMS text messaging has been used for many years in the area of cellular telecommunications. Participants are typically engaged in the communications at different times, and their participation might occur as a number of small, non-contiguous, asynchronous interactions.
In addition to person-to-person communications, many modern telecommunications devices are capable of other types of data communications through access to the Internet and other databases. For example, many telecommunication devices have built-in web browsers for Internet navigation.
It should be noted that both voice and data communications might be implemented using the same wireless and IP-based technologies. In some situations, particularly with conventional cellular or IP-based systems, voice might be communicated using a proprietary cellular protocol, while data and non-voice communications are based on other protocols carried over a cellular and/or an IP-based telecommunications network.
Telecommunications devices vary in complexity and capabilities, from simple devices that support only voice communications, to very sophisticated devices with capabilities of personal computers. These very sophisticated devices may provide a variety of services to users, which may be difficult to access and manage.